Centralized, out of band management of all equipment in Telecom’s Network Integration Lab
Telecom New Zealand has recently gone live with a centralized solution from Opengear that allows secure worldwide access to, and management of, key network and telecommunications equipment in their Network Integration Lab in Wellington. The solution includes Opengear KCS6000 and IM4200 console management appliances deployed as two distributed clusters, supporting access from up to 1000 external specialist engineers and administrators.
Prophecy Networks and Opengear have worked closely with Telecom New Zealand over the past six months to fine-tune the solution, in order to meet Telecom’s specific needs. This is something that, according to Telecom New Zealand, was not forthcoming from the vendor of their previous management solution.
“Although the Opengear solution did not initially fulfil our needs out-of-the-box, Opengear engineers were dedicated to modifying the operational software to hit all our requirements” said Dave Shaw from the Network Integration Lab. “Opengear was able to do so at a reduced cost when compared to the existing vendor, and subsequently the previous solution was decommissioned and replaced with the Opengear solution” he added.
Telecom’s Network Integration Lab (NIL) in Wellington is widely used for the creation and testing of new products (routers, switches, DSL concentrators, VO-IP gateways) and services (voice, data, and video) prior to release onto live networks. Its environment and strict quality controls ensure high reliability and performance in the Telecom environment. The NIL is also used by its vendors to undertake proof of concept testing against models of Telecom’s networks, allowing for rigorous testing of concepts before releasing them into production.
“Telecom New Zealand had specific security, scalability, and performance and quality requirements” said Opengear’s CEO, Bob Waldie. “Opengear believes in providing open, extensible solutions that fit the customer requirements”, Waldie continued.
Prophecy Networks, Opengear’s distribution partner, expects to continue working with Telecom New Zealand in remotely managing their live telecommunications equipment in many other locations.
Additional Information:
About Telecom Network Integration Lab (NIL)
Telecom is New Zealand’s largest telecommunications service provider, and touches almost every New Zealander through the range of products and services we provide, and the work we do within our communities. The Telecom NIL is used by our vendors to undertake proof of concept testing against the model of the network, allowing for rigorous testing of concepts before releasing them live on a network. The sales teams can also use the NIL as a demonstration and sales support centre. http://www.telecom.co.nz/ http://www.nil.net.nz/
About Prophecy Networks
Prophecy Networks was created in 2001 by a team of computer networking and security experts who are passionate about technical excellence and complex problem solving.Prophecy meets a growing need in the New Zealand marketplace for professional services delivered quickly and effectively by experienced engineers who are subject matter experts in a variety of fields. http://www.prophecy.co.nz/home/
About Opengear
Opengear (http://www.opengear.com) designs and manufactures next-generation console server, power management and kvm over ip solutions for secure remote access and control of network devices such as routers, switches, servers, firewalls, uninterruptible power supplies, power distribution units and environmental monitoring devices in distributed networks. Opengear’s open source platform gives network managers and system integrators the most flexible, extensible, console server solution on the market today for serial console ports, service processors, power solutions and environmental monitoring.
